Artists' color display system

Abstract

An assortment of color elements is grouped within a plurality of color families which are organized in accordance with a circular color chart (FIG. 10A) and a columnar chart (FIG. 11-A). Except for the neutral-gray color family, a pair of boundary-hues respectively defines the extent of acceptable hue variation within each group, resulting in an included range of hue within each color family, and an excluded range of hue in between neighboring color families. Variant-hue charts enhance color comparison and selection within each main color family by displaying contrasting variations of all three color attributes, that is, value, saturation, and hue, within a single chart. Variant-hue charts also consolidate color elements into a compact format, and provide a graphical user interface for computer color selection.

Description

[0001]This application claims the benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. 120 of my patent application Ser. No. 10 / 260,159 filed on Sep. 30, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,180,524 and is a continuation-in-part.COPYRIGHT NOTICE[0002]A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.BACKGROUND[0003]1. Field of Invention[0004]This invention relates to color-appearance systems, specifically to the organization of colors for use by artists.[0005]2. Prior Art[0006]Color-appearance systems are plans by which colors may be defined, arranged, displayed, compared, selected, and in some cases, formulated. Having a color chart, swatch book, or other tabulated reference of displayed color ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0045](g) to provide a color-appearance system which, by indexing color elements to formulas, establishes a database that facilitates the mixing and matching of custom colors, and color combinations, and the recording, tabulation, and transmission of formulas for duplicating such color mixtures, matches, and combinations in a variety of media; and

[0046](h) to provide a color-appearance system which is suited to the selecti

Problems solved by technology

While the human eye is capable of perceiving color with great sensitivity, our color memory is short-lived.

Presently there are no color-appearance systems which adequately meet both the traditional and technological needs of today's fine artist.

There are ink-based color matching systems tailored to the printing industry and there are pigment-based systems used to specify industrial color matches, but both of these types of systems are too large and complex to be of practical use to the individual working with color on a smaller scale.

Also, because these systems are geared toward mass-production colorants, they are not easily adapted to the unique, more expensive, lightfast coloring materials used by artists.

Beyond some published color-mixing recipes and colored paper assortments, no tools are available to aid the artist in effectively dealing with the wide variety of color choices and new media he or she currently encounters, particularly in the realm of computer graphics.

Choosing a color within this type of GUI is not necessarily easy, however, since the color selection devices (called “color pickers”) usually comprise a representative sampling of the over 16 million colors that can be displayed on the computer screen (FIGS. 5-A, 6, and 8-A).

However, the known color palettes and swatch sets, containing relatively smaller assortments of discrete color elements, are not organized in formats with which most artists are comfortable.

However the 360° of this “artistic” RGB color wheel fails to provide a perceptually even distribution of hue (FIG. 36).

It also presents its hue gamut as a smooth, contiguous blend from which it is difficult to distinguish and select particularly desired hues.

Because it is subdivided into 72 contiguous hues it is an awkward organizational tool.

Consequently, the Munsell color system fails to adequately refl

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